PARIS, France — The family of a 19-year-old Franco-German cyclist arrested in Iran while on a Europe-to-Asia bike trip said on Thursday he was innocent and demanded proof he was alive from Iranian authorities.

Family and friends of Lennart Monterlos said in a statement sent to AFP that they had not received any explanation for his arrest since he disappeared in Iran on June 16, several days into unprecedented Israeli airstrikes on Iran that targeted its nuclear and ballistic missile program.

A month later, “we have no official information about either the place of his detention or the reasons for his arrest in Bandar Abbas, Iran, during the war,” they said.

“We count on the efforts of French diplomats, who we know to be mobilized, for the swift release of our very young son, who is innocent of everything,” they added. “We ask the Iranian authorities who are holding him for a sign of life and to be able to get in touch with him as soon as possible.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told French newspaper Le Monde last week that Tehran had detained the young man.

The French Foreign Ministry has told AFP it was in contact with Iranian authorities about the case.

Two other French nationals — academics Cecile Kohler, 40, and Jacques Paris, 72 — are also being held on charges of spying for Israel and could face the death penalty. They were detained on May 7, 2022.

Iran is believed to hold about 20 Europeans in detention.

Along with other European countries, France suspects Iran of taking Western citizens hostage to trade their freedom for concessions, notably on its nuclear plans and the lifting of economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

France and a number of other countries have urged their nationals not to go to Iran because of the risk of detention.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.